Skein with the thread crossed in the form of a figure eight for the examination of the yarn and an apparatus for the production of the skein



June 5, 1928.

ZANCHI A. SKEIN WITH THE THREAD CROSSED IN THE FORM OF A FIGURE EIGHT FOR THE. EXAMINATION OF THE YARN AND AN APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE SKEIN Filed June 23, 1925 Patented June 5, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ATTILIO ZANCHI, OF .MILAN, ITALY.

SKEIN WITH THE THREAD CROSSED IN THE FORK OF A. FIGURE EIGHT FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE YARN AND AN APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION THE SKEIN.

In the textile industry,- particularly in the artificial silk industry, the yarn before passing into commercial use is usually subjected to a double sorting operation for the purpose of removing from it the parts which are imperfect as regards structure and colour.

This double sorting, upon which the commercial value of the product depends essentially, because it enables the manufacturer to give guarantees or otherwise, is at the present time very diflicult to carr out,

simply on account of the unpractioa formof the skeins employed. In fact not only must it be possible for the whole of the yarn to be seen, as these sorting operations are carried out by visual examination, but it must also be possible to remove easily the waste parts of yarn. L

Now, with the skeins employed at the present time the amount of thread visible is very small and, what is worse, the removal of the smallest amount of yarn is so difiicult that even the most elficient workersmust frequently abandon the attempt, because the skeins become tangled to such an extent that the subsequent operations are greatly obstructed. It is therefore generally considered suflicient to carry out a very rough classification without giving any guarantees, while at the same time a great deal of time is lost and the most expert manual labour has to be employed.

The present lnvention relates to a new* form of skein which, without excludin a more general use, is particularly applica le for use in the double sorting operation mentioned above, A form of apparatus suitable for the manufacture of this skein also forms a subject of the present invention.

The advantages presented by this skein are the total visibility of the yarn, the impossibility of the occurrence of any tangling of the yarn, in addition to which sorting according to shades of colour can follow that according to structure without any subsequent changes having to be made, as it is only necessary for this purpose to immerse the skein in a bath of neutral dye by which means the colour and classification can be better carried out. The provisional colouring being eifected without a mordant is therefore washable.

Application filed June 23, 1926, Serial No. 118,082, and in Italy February 2, 1926.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figures 1, 2 and 3 illustrate the skein according to the invention.

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate in front and side elevation theapparatus according to the invention for the production of the-skein.

Figure 6 is a modification of this device for small skeins. o0

Figure'7 is a structuraldetail.

The form of the skein 1 is cIearly shown in Figure 1; the thread 2 is wound in a single layer inparallel turns placed side by side and spaced apart, each turn being in the form of a figure 8; that is to sa that the straight sides of two adjacent half turns cross at their centres. The visibility, accessibility and orderly arangement of the threads are perfect; moreover even if any overlapping of the threads occurred it would be suflicient to slide the skein along itself in order to produce everywhere the order existing in, the region where the threads cross, where the latter set upon each other like 7 two combs. v i

The subdivision of the skein into smaller sections during sorting (see Fig. 2) is easily obtained by introducing-a stylo 3 between .the threads or simply a finger nail; the point of separation is clearly defined and the thread 4 joining the separated part to the remainder of the skein is immediately seen.

In Figure 3 two rings 5, 5 of strong thread are introduced into each of the two eyes of the skein. They enable, by simply exerting a pull in the direction of'the arrows, these eyes to be easily opened again if, as a consequence of the. handling of the skein after it has been removed from its supports "0 the skein itself has become deformed, flattened or twisted. I The apparatus for the production of the skein, shown in-Figures 4, 5, 6 and 7 is constructed and operates in the following man 9 ner:

First of-all a small thread guiding rod 6 leading the thread to be wound (Figs. 4, 5) travels over a figure Sshaped path '(lemniscate) around the two rods 7, 7 of a skein} holder 8. As soon as a turn has been formed this skein holder moves back, in a direction parallel to rods 7, 7', by an amount equal to the thickness of this turn, leaving. the

necessary space free for the following turn to be formed, which turn is formed in the same way.

This lemniscate path is obtained as a re sult of the fact that if a rod 9, Figure 6, is actuated at one end by a crank and slides in a fixed guide, during the rotation of the crank certain points on this rod describe figure 8 shaped curves; that one of these points the distance of which from the pin of the crank is equal to the distance from the fixed guide to the axis of the rotation of the crank itself describes a figure 8 with practically equal lobes.

The thread guide 11 is mounted at this point by means of a small angle plate 12; the guide in which the rod 9 slides is formed by a set of three rollers mounted upon a small triangular plate 13 oscillating about a therefore depend u on the dimensions of the skein to be obtaine I For small skeins the space occupied by the machine will not be excessive and this solution of the problem may be acceptable but when the skein reaches large dimensions (50 cm. and over) the space occupied becomes too large and is not suitable in view of the instead ofbein the cross member 19 .fact that a large number of machines are looked after by one operative.

This disadvantage is overcome by means of the device shown in Figures 4 and 5. The latter enables skeins to be obtained the longer axis of which is twice the diameter of the circle described by the crank.

I This is obtained in the following manner: to the crank 14 is connected, as in the previous case, a rod 15 slidin in a guide 16 which is of tubular form in this example, and is rockably mounted upon the top of a'small column 17; but the thread guide 6 directly mounted upon the rod 15 is now fixed to a pair of small tubes 18, 18 connected together by a small cross stay 19 and sliding along two rods 20,20 which are parallel and secured to the rod 15. A cord 21 connected at its middle point to passes over two pulleys 22, 22 with which t, e tube 15 is provided and is attached at its'ends tothe guide tube 16. A tensioning device 23 is connected in this cord. It will be easily understood that by means of this device the thread guide 6 describes in space a figure 8 of twice the size of the one it would describe if it were directly mounted upon the rod 15 as in the prev1ouscase..' I

The g'skein. holder 8 is removabl' mounted upon a'small carriage 24 provi ed underneath with .two eyes 25, 25 and a half nut 1,eva,144

carriage rests upon' a screwthreaded shaft 27. A cylindrical rod 28 parallel to the shaft 27 passes through the two eyes along which rod the carriage is adapted to slide. An ec centric shaft 29 parallel to the two guides 27, 28 but placed above the carriage serves either for maintaining the half nut in contact with the screwthreaded shaft during the operation or for removing it from the shaft by means of the angle plate 30 when it is desired to move the carriage freely.

The moi'ement is transmitted to the machine by the driving pulley 31 mounted upon the driving shaft 32. At the end of this shaft is keyed the crank 14. The intermittent rotation of the shaft 27 roducing the displacement of the carriage is obtained by means of an eccentric 33 (not shown in Fig. 4) mounted upon the shaft 32, by the movement of a pawl (shown diagrammatically) upon the toothed wheel 34.

A spool holder 35 is rovided. 36 is a brake of known type s'ervmg to regulate the tension of the thread. Such a brake may,

for example, be comprised of two small discs having overturned edges, mounted loose concentricall face to face on one and the same pivot an pressed against one another by an adjusta' le spring. Variations in the winding speed of the thread are compensated for by pulleys 38, 39 over which the thread passes, which pulleys are mounted at the end of elastic rods, attracted in the direction of the arrows by springs not shown.

The whole arrangement is mounted upon two supports 40, 40' mounted upon the table and provided if desired with lateral extensions 41, 41' for assembling several machines side by side.

An automatic device is provided for stopping the machine when the thread breaks.

This sleeve is compelled to .turn continually with the shaft 32 by means of a key and slot. The pulley 31 is provided with a projecting pin 47; the disc 42 is provided with several pins 48. When the spring 46 engages against the in 47 the shaft 32 is come pelled to turn. f the sleeve is displaced and the spring 46' engages between the pins 48 the machine is instantly stopped. A spring not shown in the drawing continually attracts the sleeve 45 towards this'last mentioned position. The said sleeve however can only respond to the action of the ing a driving pulley,

latter, if the rod 49 formed with a hook at the shaft 44 becomes disengaged from the catch 50. This occurs when, the thread having become broken, the elastic lever 51 can escape in the direction of the arrow under the action of a light spring and by means of the levers 52 and 53 push the catch 50 down.

The machine is started up by hand by operatin the lever 55 keyed 'uponthe other end of the shaft 44.

The thread guide 6 comes on a level with the point at which the threads cross, twice for each turn of the skein. In order to pre vent the thread being pulled away the forward end of the thread guide is formed in the manner shown in Figure 7, that is to say this end is formed by a small porcelain mushroom shaped member 54 pierced axially and rounded at the. head.

The modification in the device for obtaining the skein only relates to the oscillating rod carrying the threaded guide. The remainder of the machine is the same in both cases.

What I claim is:

1. A. skein for the examination of yarn or the like comprising a plurality of figure-8- shaped turns arranged in a single layer side by side with the adjacent turns at strictly equidistant spacing to enable visual examination of the threads.

2. A skein according toclaim 1, further comprising two cords passing through each of the eyes of the figure 8 formed by the skein and each of said cords, forming a closed ring.

3. An apparatus for producing a skein for the examination of am or the hke comprisinga plurality of gure 8 shaped turns arranged in a single layer side by side so that thelonger sides of an two adjacent half turns cross at their mi dle points, com risa crank shaft driven on said shaft, a

by said pulley, a'crank crank rod actuated by said crank, a fixed pivot, a crank rod guide rockably mounted on said pivot, said crank rod being adapted to slide. in said guide, thread guiding means on said crank rod, a rod (28), a carriage (24) adapted to slide upon said 'rod, .two-

parallel rods, connected to form a skein holder, mounted on said carriage, said thread guiding means beingadapted to describe a figure 8 shaped path about said arallel skein holder rods and said skein ho der rods being. adapted to move back in an'axial direction during the, skein winding operation, a half nut (26) upon said carriage, a screwthreaded' shaft (2 adapted to turn intermlfitsntly, S ld carriage being adapted to [rest-upon said shaft through the medlumof .said half nut, means for rotating said shaft,

means for bringing-said half nut into encauses the crank shaft gagement and removing it from engagement with said shaft (27).

4. An apparatus for producin a skein as; claimed in claim 3, the means or rotating said screwthreaded shaft comprising an ec-' centric on said crank shaft, a ratchet wheel on said screwthreaded shaft, a pawl device adapted to be actuated by said eccentric so as to turn saidratchet wheel.

5. An apparatus for producing a skein as claimed in claim 3, the means for moving said half nut intoand out of engagement with said screwthreaded shaft including an eccentric shaft (29).

6. An apparatus for producing a skeln as claimed in claim 3, the thread guiding means comprising a pair of small tubes (18-18) integrally secured together, a thread guide mounted on said tubes, two rods (20-20) parallel and secured to said crank rod, a cord connected at its-middle point to said two tubes (18-18), two pulleys mounted upon said crank rod, said cord' passing over said pulle s and the ends. of said cord being attache to said crank rod guide.

7. An apparatus for producing a skein as claimed in claim 3, the read guiding means comprising a pair of small tubes (18-18) integrall secured to ther, a thread guide having t e front end ormed by a mushroom shaped porcelain member pierced axially and having a rounded head mounted on said tubes, two rods (20-20') parallel and secured to said crank rod, a cord connected at its middle point to said two tubes (18-18), two pulleys mounted upon said crank rod, said cord .passing over said pulleys and the ends of said cord being attached to said crank rod guide.

8. An apparatus for producing aclaimed in claim 3, further comprising means for stopping the machine when the thread breaks.

9. Anapparatus for the production of a skein as claimed in claim 3, further comprising a sleeve (45) on said crank shaft (32 said-sleeve being adapted to slide along said shaft and turn always with it, two radial sprin members (46, 46') on said sleeve a pin 47) on said driving pulley, the drivlng pul ey being loosely mounted on said skein as crank shaft, a plurality of other fixed pins (48), the arrangement beingsuch that when the said sleeve is moved in one direction one of said spring members comes into engagement with the pin on the driving pulley and to be'driven by said pulley and when said sleeve moves in the opposite direction the other. spring member 7 comes into engagement with said fixed pins and stops the -rotation of said crank shaft and thereby the operation of the apparatus,

a pivot, a forkedlever on said pivot, said lever engaging with its fork upon said a sleeve, a rod keyed upon one end of said pivot, said rod having ahook formed upon its other end, a catch adapted to engage with said hook and lock said pivot and said forked member, during the working of the apparatus, in such a position that one of said spring members (46) then engaging with the said pin (47) on the driving pulley engage on the thread, the other levers being adapted to co-operate with said elastic lever (53) when the thread becomes broken and ,said elastic lever thereby released, in order to press down said catch' (50) and release it 0111 said hooked rod (49) so that said -sleev'@becomes free to be attracted away from engagement with the driving pulley and into engagement with said fixed pins causin the apparatus to stop working.

10. n'apparatus for producing a skein as claimed in claim 3, further comprising means for regulating the tension of the thread;

'11. An apparatus for producing a skein as claimed in claim 3 further comprising a tension regulating brake.

12. An apparatus for producing a skein as claimed in claim 3 further comprising means compensating for the slack in the yarnd'caused by variations in the winding s ee 13. An apparatus for producing a skein as claimed in claim 3, further comprising two levers adapted to compensate for the slack 'in the yarn caused by variations in the winding speed.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

AT' l ILIO 'ZANGHI. 

